Traveling control device

Abstract

A traveling control device includes a traffic signal detection unit configured to detect a traffic signal, a timing determination unit configured to determine whether or not a host vehicle has reached a transition signal determination timing, a lighting information acquisition unit configured to acquire lighting information, a lighting cycle information acquisition unit configured to acquire lighting cycle information of the traffic signal, a transition signal determination unit configured to determine whether or not a transition signal is lit in a traveling lane of the host vehicle based on the lighting information at the transition signal determination timing and the lighting cycle information, a smooth stop possibility determination unit configured to determine whether or not the host vehicle can be smoothly stopped when the transition signal is lit, and a traveling control unit configured to smoothly stop the host vehicle when the host vehicle can be smoothly stopped.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A traveling control device that is configured to execute tracking control of a host vehicle such that the host vehicle tracks a preceding vehicle, the device comprising:
 a traffic signal detection unit configured to detect a traffic signal in front of the host vehicle based on a captured image of a space in front of the host vehicle;   a timing determination unit configured to determine whether or not the host vehicle has reached a transition signal determination timing set in advance based on a distance from the host vehicle to the traffic signal;   a lighting information acquisition unit configured to acquire lighting information relating to a lighting situation of the traffic signal detected by the traffic signal detection unit;   a lighting cycle information acquisition unit configured to acquire lighting cycle information of the traffic signal;   a transition signal determination unit configured to determine whether or not the lighting situation of the traffic signal in a traveling lane of the host vehicle is a situation in which a transition signal indicating a transition from a passage permission signal to a stop signal is lit based on the lighting information acquired by the lighting information acquisition unit when the host vehicle reaches the transition signal determination timing and the lighting cycle information acquired by the lighting cycle information acquisition unit;   a smooth stop possibility determination unit configured to determine whether or not the host vehicle can be smoothly stopped when the transition signal determination unit determines that the lighting situation of the traffic signal in the traveling lane of the host vehicle is the situation in which the transition signal is lit; and   a traveling control unit configured to execute the tracking control of the host vehicle and to smoothly stop the host vehicle by terminating the tracking control of the host vehicle when the smooth stop possibility determination unit determines that the host vehicle can be smoothly stopped.   
     
     
         2 . The traveling control device according to  claim 1 , wherein, when the lighting information acquisition unit acquires the lighting information of the traffic signal before the host vehicle reaches the transition signal determination timing and the lighting information acquisition unit does not acquire the lighting information of the traffic signal when the host vehicle reaches the transition signal determination timing, the transition signal determination unit is configured to determine whether or not the lighting situation of the traffic signal in the traveling lane of the host vehicle at a time when the host vehicle reaches the transition signal determination timing is the situation in which the transition signal is lit based on the lighting information relating to the lighting situation acquired by the lighting information acquisition unit before the host vehicle reaches the transition signal determination timing and the lighting cycle information acquired by the lighting cycle information acquisition unit.